This illustration is on the cover of a book called “Slaves and Warriors in Medieval Britain, etc” and the caption reads: Viking raider, 19th c. painting etc. Is it a Viking or rather a bishop like the ones who fought at Hastings? The bishop’s folding mitre with a front cruciform design is clearly visible as well as the two lappets flying in the wind.

Google celebrates the 182nd anniversary of Jules Verne’s birthday with a Nautilus simulator: twenty thousand leagues under the web. It brings back memories of my childhood when I used to devour Verne’s books; but that’s a familiar story in almost every household, isn’t it? Exploration, discovery, giant birds lifting children and carrying them miles away, travels to unknown and unimagined places, bizarre acquaintances, all that set about creating a world of its own, outside time, enjoyed into the night, by the bedlamp: summer nights refreshed with adventure.

What’s your favourite Verne story? Mine is “In search of the Castaways”, which oddly translates the French title “Les enfants du Capitaine Grant”.